CHAPTER LII

    How the captain Alonso de Alvarado, on getting the news of Pero Alvarez Holguin, sent another messenger to Vaca de Castro urging him to come to where the camp was with all possible speed.

IT was very fortunate for Vaca de Castro that he should have found so much loyalty in the Realm; and that now that Don Diego had usurped the government of the provinces, his Majesty the King our Lord should have had vassals of a kind who would not countenance so weighty an offence, nor allow any one to occupy the Realm against his royal pleasure.

Although his Majesty has pronounced the battle that was fought at Chupas to have been just, I will not, in my book, term Don Diego and his followers traitors, for two reasons; as to which, if they are not evident, I submit to correction by those wise and learned men who understand these things better than I do. I say then, that the principal reason is that Vaca de Castro brought no mandate or commission to fight a battle. The second is that Don Diego and his followers would have supported Vaca de Castro if the latter had not joined with Pero Alvarez; and further, because the object of the Chile party, at first, was to avenge the death of the Adelantado by murdering[179] the Marquis,[97] and if the King should not think fit to pardon them, to retire into the most remote interior. It may be true that they committed a great mistake in that, at the time that they murdered the Marquis, they took the wands of Office from the Alcaldes of Lima, and gave them to men of their own choice: an ill-judged action.

But to return to our subject. Alonso de Alvarado had collected all the men within his reach, and had sent his messengers to Vaca de Castro; but when he knew that Pero Alvarez Holguin, with the people of Cuzco and Plata were approaching him, he decided not to go to Quito, where he supposed that he would find Vaca de Castro, but went on with his troops towards the province of Guaylas instead, first sending another messenger to Vaca de Castro. This message was to urge him to join in with the men he had collected, without letting more time elapse. For, praise be to God, things had made such a good beginning, that he and Pero Alvarez had now got together as many as 500 men, to help secure obedience to the will of his Majesty. He asked Vaca de Castro not to delay much in coming, lest Don Diego, who had retired towards Cuzco, should there increase his resources. He wrote other things in his letter too. As soon as Alonso de Alvarado had despatched the messenger, he ordered those who were with him to get ready to march to Guaylas. So they started at once and proceeded until they arrived at a habitation called Yungay, one day's journey from the camp of Pero Alvarez. Thence they wrote very gracious letters, and some of the one camp visited those of the other. Here they stayed, waiting for news of the Governor Vaca de Castro: where we will leave them for the present, and tell of what Don Diego de Almagro did.